What are Geometric Shapes?
Geometric shapes are defined as closed shapes that are created using points, line segments, circles and curves. Some examples of geometric shapes are squares, rectangles, circles, trapezoids, triangles and many others.
Geometric shapes describe the shape of objects. A geometric shape can be a three dimensional (3D) solid shape or a two dimensional (2D) flat shape. Let’s learn more about these shapes.
Real Life Examples of Shapes
Some real life examples of geometric shapes are nachos (triangular in shape), pizzas (circular or rectangular in shape), frisbees (circular in shape), and cell phones (rectangular in shape).
What are 2D shapes?
Squares, circles, triangles and rectangles are 2D shapes. Shapes that are described by two dimensions, length and width, are called 2D shapes. A parallelogram, a trapezoid and a kite are also examples of such a type of shape.
What are 3D shapes?
Three-dimensional or 3D shapes are solid figures with three dimensions, length, width and height. These shapes occupy space and hence are measured in terms of volume. Examples of 3D shapes are cubes, rectangular prisms, spheres, cones and cylinders.
Solved Examples
Example 1: Which of the following options is not a geometric shape?
Solution:
As per the definition, all geometric shapes are closed figures.
Among the given figures, the first three options are a star shape, a hexagon and a trapezoid, and these are examples of closed shapes.
The fourth shape is not closed.
Hence, the fourth figure is not a geometric shape.
Example 2: How many sides does an octagon have?
Solution:
An octagon is a closed figure with 8 sides. The following shape represents an octagon.
Example 3: Allison enjoys watching the moon. Today she saw half of the moon. Is the moon representing a closed shape or an open shape?
Solution:
As you can see, the half-moon represents the half-circle. It is a closed figure as the curve is connected to the straight line on both ends.
Hence, the half-moon is a representation of a closed figure.
Polygons are closed figures that are made up of straight lines and no curves. Squares and rectangles are examples of polygons.
A decagon is made up of 10 sides.
A few common geometric shapes are triangles, circles, squares and rectangles.
While 2D shapes have two dimensions, 3D shapes have three dimensions. 2D shapes are flat, but in comparison, 3D shapes have height, depth, and volume.